A young man is brought into the emergency room and needs a blood transfusion. His blood type is AB. You call the blood bank to order AB blood but are told the bank is out of that type. What other type could the blood bank deliver for his transfusion?

fosse4

http://chapters.redcross.org/br/northernohio/info/bloodtype.html Stick O Negative in and hope for the best - research has gone on to find the universal donor blood - Check out Blood Donor Universal on your search engine. Dec 24 03, 12:08 PM

gmackematix

I think AB can receive blood from any other of the four groups. I don't let knowing this affect my enjoyment of Tony Hancock's "Blood Donor" episode though. Dec 24 03, 9:36 PM

lothruin

Blood type AB is the universal recipient, and can accept blood of any other blood type, dependent on Rh factor. The reason blood of one type can't accept blood of another type is that there are antibodies in the recipient's plasma which might attack antigens on the donor blood cells. However, AB blood has no antibodies in the plasma. Therefore, a person with type AB blood can usually receive blood with any type of antigen, (or no antigens, as in type O) without negative reactions. (Once again, dependant on the Rh factor.) Types A and B can receive either their type of blood or type O. But we type O's, the universal donors that we are, can only accept type O blood during transfusion, because we have both types of antibodies in our plasma. (Bad antibodies! Down boys! We have militant plasma. Downright prejudiced. Wants no truck with other blood.) Dec 27 03, 12:05 AM